govern (03/22/83)
While I agree with most of Dave's points, the intent of my suggestion was *NOT* to discuss "whether the Bible is inspired and why it contains accounts of people sinning." There's already been a fair amount of discussion (well, argument anyway) about whether the Bible, or any other scripture, is inspired, and I doubt too many minds will be changed by more. What I had suggested discussing is "What do we mean by 'inspired'?" This gets into some heavy questions, and I know few people, myself included, who are satisfied with their answers after seriously thinking about the issue. II Tim. 3:16 is a good start, but there's a difference between "useful" for teaching, doctrine, etc., and "How do we use it?". My points about sin, poetic imagery, parable, etc. were attempts at delimiting what we mean by inspiration, to try to avoid some of the more simplistic approaches to the problem. Bill